Like myself, many artists have changed their canvas and paint brushes for a computer screen and a mouse. There are some good reasons why.
written by Bob Tidy - Photographer and digital artist
For many people the definition of a "painting" requires physical paint and the mastery of a hand applying it with brushes onto a canvas. Others echo the idea that edited photography has nothing to do "real art" and is something different altogether.
Others like myself, would argue that art would lose its very definition it it did not continually experiment and evolve in new directions. Why shouldn't that include embracing the digital era that we live in? Interestingly to me, must people have no idea of the complexity of painting with "electronic" brushes and creating multi layered images and they tend to assume that somehow the computer program does all the work. I have been working with art software for over twenty years and I am always learning new techniques. AI is another subject all together and best left alone in this context. The simply truth is that neither traditional media or the use of modern software makes the artist. They are simply tools of the trade that need to to learnt and practiced with dedication, just like the traditional painter.
ADVANTAGES FOR THE DIGITAL ARTIST
Flexibility is the main advantage because images, scans of water colour backgrounds, overlay textures etc are never lost, they can be saved or hidden or worked on again at any time in the future. When the traditional painter wants to change anything, they have no choice but to destroy what they had already achieved by painting over it. Furthermore I change the size, the tonal strength or opacity of any element within a composition very quickly. Rather than spending time mixing physical paint on a palette, I can select one of thousands of colours with a simple click and adjust any of them, at any time. I have access to an incredible range of digital brushes that allow me to simulate any traditional painting or drawing media and I can apply interesting elements like smoke, water stains or ink splatter, for example, with complete control over the desired effect. if something doesn't work, delete the layer and try another idea. And all this leads to more creativity and experimentation and often a composition takes a few interesting directions before being completed, unless I re-load it in the future and evolve it further in a new way. Nothing is lost unless until I decide so. The example below shows how hand painted traditional tiles are combined with two photographs with blending and digital painting techniques applied to create the final composition. I will leave it with you to decide if this is "art" or not, but its here, and its here to stay.
ADVANTAGES FOR THE ART BUYER
On many occasions when I talk to potential buyers at exhibitions they comment that they really love the image (or painting), how it would look great in their lounge... but unfortunately its just too small (or too large).
The tradition painter can only suggest that they produce a copy to a new size, but I don't have that problem. My "canvas" is a computer file and therefor the image can be printed to high quality paper or to canvas and stretched over a frame (as an original) to what ever size (in proportion) that the buyer would like. Not only that, but I can take (or be given) a photo of the wall space and visualize how the artwork will look at different sizes.
Back to flexibility again.
Even when size is not an issue, the next barrier to overcome can be that living in another country makes it unpractical to take the artwork home on a plane. This is not a problem either. The digital image can be emailed to the buyer in Canada, for example, and they can arrange the printing in their country... to any size they want. Thankfully I have some of my work on the walls of people around the world, hopefully because the work is good, but definitely because of technology and the convenience, (and dare I say the flexibility) that it brings .
Echoing my opening comment, many people struggle to accept a new understanding of what an "original" artwork is and I fully understand and respect the reasons why, Traditionally or digitally, art is produced by the imagination and skills of the artist either way. So I will finish with a question. What is the real difference between the result being "painted" onto canvas with paint, or "printed" onto canvas with laser jet ink?
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